MOORE, GEORGE ANTHONY

MOORE, GEORGE ANTHONY (8 Feb. 1914 - 28 Feb. 1997) was a pioneer for African-American employment in the fields of daily metropolitan newspapers as well as in television. The Cleveland native was the son of Sylvester and Marie Moore, a laborer and domestic worker, respectively. He was enrolled at ST. IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL only after his mother secured the personal intervention of the Catholic Bishop of Cleveland. Moore went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University, where he was a roommate of JESSE OWENS, and a master's degree in theater from the University of Iowa. With a year's experience as columnist for the black weekly CLEVELAND HERALD, he was hired by LOUIS B. SELZTER in 1942 as a reporter for the CLEVELAND PRESS, at a time when only one other big city daily employed a full-time black journalist. Among his assignments for the Press was a series on the sale of spoiled meats at supermarkets in inner-city neighborhoods. In 1947 Moore joined Ohio's first television station, WEWS. There he produced such programs as "Ebony Showcase," possibly the first black variety show on television, and DOROTHY FULDHEIM'S "One O'Clock Club." He left television in 1959 to become associate regional director for the Cleveland Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He later headed his own public relations firm, George A. Moore & Co., and returned as a columnist for the Cleveland Press from 1978-82. He taught and lectured on theater and journalism at CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY, CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY, and Harvard. Moore was the first president of the Catholic Interracial Council of Cleveland and received the James J. Hoey Award from the National Catholic Conference on Interracial Justice. A longtime resident of CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, he died in MT. SINAI MEDICAL CENTER.